The sun had barely reached its zenith in the sky as Jesiah Black stepped out of the massive doors of the imperial library. The day, at least for him, had been bittersweet up to this point. Following the advice he had received only yesterday he had decided to apply as a researcher of magic for the king. Money was starting to become a problem yet again and, this time, Jessie thought this was truly a place he could settle down in. No one seemed to care about his past (or if they did they kept their opinions to themselves and left him alone) and no one seemed overly bothered by his radical theories. In Doma nothing was out of place, or at least it appeared that way.

Despite it all, the library had interviewed him and given him a relatively blithe sounding â€˜Weâ€™ll need to send this through the proper channels before we can actually hire youâ€™. On the one hand it all sounded rather promising, a secure and decent paying job and little actual worries. On the other he couldnâ€™t afford to wait for long, as it was he was only eating one meal a day and staying in the cheapest rooms he could find; at the rate his money was going even that wouldnâ€™t last him much longer.

It was with these thoughts that Jessie wandered his way through the ruined city. The more he contemplated the more he came to the thought that there had to be something he could do in the interim. Then, it caught his eye, a flyer tacked directly in the middle of a bulletin board he chanced to walk past as he turned over the thoughts in his mind. The money being offered was a sizable amount and would surely draw a crowd and quickly; it would also line his pockets quite nicely until such time as the library actually got done doing whatever it was that they needed to do.

Focusing his gray eyes once more over the contact information Jessie smiled for the first time in twenty years. â€œEither today is my lucky day or Iâ€™m going in way over my head. I never did know where the line between the two was.â€

Bounty hunting just wasn't paying the bills anymore, so to speak. Not that Seryntas had any bills to pay. He was staying in Doma with Andy and Jessica Fireblade, who had adamantly refused to let Seryntas give them any money. "Think of it as payment for all the times you've saved Andy's butt," Jess advised. She was also quite quick to ignore him when he reminded her that Andy had saved his butt at least as many times as he'd saved Andy's.

Seryntas had left for Doma from Earth Kingdom shortly after hearing about the occupation of the city by Malachias. He had known that Tasi had a whole lot of beauracracy to sort through before she could send any official help, but he would try his best alone. He wound up reaching the city about two weeks before the fall of Malachias' empire, only to spend a couple of nerve-wracking weeks with the Fireblades and Jex Anres, trying to find and connect with the resistance movement. They'd failed to do so before the city became free again. Seryntas decided to stay a while in Doma and help out with Jess' ice delivery service, taking the place of the old delivery boy, who had disappeared shortly after the invasion. Now the normal delivery boy was back (he had fled to Nekonia), and Seryntas found himself with a lot of free time, but not a lot of free cash. He'd tried to get back into bounty hunting in Doma, but all his old contacts were dead or had disappeared...which was why the warrior gave a prayer of thanks to Krad when he read the flyer by where Kotoki's used to be, complete with the 15,000 gil reward.

Jessie looked up at the question and studied both of the others that stood in the street with him. There would be no better chance, he reasoned, to become acquainted with his possible travelling companions.

"Indeed. I do not have the same restrictions upon the jobs that I am willing to take, though being a mercinary is becoming more and more distasteful to me as time passes. The man has a point however, anyone who makes it through this alive isn't going to have to worry about bills for quite some time."

"Jesiah Black," Jessie added. "Jessie to most of those I've travelled with for any length of time. May I be so bold as to suggest the three of us go and visit this Mr. LaVonton, then? The faster we get there the faster we get paid."

Seryntas earned himself a sharp, cold stare for his remark. "I am more than a bit familiar with magic my dear farmboy. I make no judgement of you based on your chosen profesion and hope you would not be so presumptious as to judge me based on mine."

"I suppose scholar mages aren't allowed to run low on money and go out on mecenary jobs. As it happens I'm just bucking the system."

This was, Jessie decided, pointless. He doubted if he could make this overgrown idiot see his point, probably because the farmboy turned bounty hunter probably thought he didn't have one. He wouldn't be clear in that man's book until he had a few more battles under his belt.

"No use standing in the middle of the street and sniping at each other. I'm going to go find this Mr. LaVonton. Perhaps on the way we can get our other travelling companion to tell us a bit about herself."

Jessie wasn't about to wait for comment, he simply turned and headed down the street.

Nobody said anything else to Kilisha, so the group continued on in silence. It worked for her: it had occured to her only after she had asked her companions about themselves that she might have wound up explaining to them why she was blue and had fangs. It was too soon for that.

Eventually, they arrived at the Jade Dragon. Kilisha was about to open the front door, but it was opened from the other side before she managed.

"Excuse me," said the man who emerged. His voice had an arrogant sound to it.

Lisha moved out of his way, then looked him over. He looked to be somewhere in his thirties. His hair was brown and tied back into a ponytail which ran halfway down his back, and he also wore a short, neatly trimmed beard across his face. His clothes consisted of a dark blue robe, tied at the waist with a black sash, a light blue woolen tunic and pair of pants (although Lisha could only partially see them because of the robe), and a dark blue wizard's hat with a wide rim and a pointy top.

The man moved past Lisha and onto the street. He began to walk down the street towards the market.

"Wait," said Lisha before he got very far.

The man stopped and looked at her.

"What is it?" he said impatiently.

"Would you... happen to know Jeshua LaVonton?" Lisha asked.

"The archmage of the Order of Daigal?" the man replied.

Kilisha nodded.

"Now why would I know him?" asked the man, sounding irritated.

"Well you... look... like a mage," replied Lisha, sounding nervous.

"So just because I look like a mage, I should know Jeshua LaVonton," said the man.

"Well I... I think..." Kilisha began, then stopped to think for a moment. "Yes."

"Yes?" said the man, then laughed. "Actually, I am Jeshua LaVonton."

"Then why..." Lisha started to ask. "Very funny."

Jeshua gave a nod. "So what do you need?"

"Money," said Lisha.

"I see. Are you a capable fighter?" asked the mage.

"I would say so," Lisha said.

"Then you've got the job," Jeshua said. He then turned to Jessie and Seryntas. "Did you two need something?"

"The archmage of the Order of Daigal? Why would any of us know him? Are you insinuating that because there is what would appear to be a mage, a scholar and a warrior talking with each other we should actually know this LaVonton fellow on sight?"

Xiao Long walked along the trail, slowly, thinking happy thoughts and watching the sun set. She walked over to one of the boards, thinking about getting another job. Her last one had been pretty dirty. She had to hunt out a thief, who just happened to be living in the sewers.

The thought of the sewers sent a chill down her spine. She approached the board, and one instantly caught her eye. It said to go to the Jade Dragon and ask for a Jeshua LaVonton. Then she saw the pay. Holy crap!, she thought, That's a lot of money. either that guy is rich, or wants this job don fast. She then looked around and saw others reading the sign as well. Well, if i want this job, i better hurry, she thought. She quickly ran off down the beaten trail.

She hit an intersection a few miles from the board, and slowed down to look at the sign. It said the Jade Dragon was of to the left trail, so she ran off again, in the direction of the dim lights. She ran for maybe another mile or so when she entered the outskirts of town. She stopped, to catch her breath, and asked for directions. People looked her strange, as if she had five heads, and told her to follow the flow of people. The people were all heading toward the center of town. When she arrived, she found a huge building, and in front of the door were four people, a succubus, a warrior, what looked like a scholar and a mage. The mage was taller then the two, but the warrior stood taller than the rest. The warrior also wasn't the most pleasant person to look at.

Oh no, i hope those guys aren't trying to fill the spot! She quickly walked over and, although kind of rudely, butted in. "Do you happen to know a Jeshua LaVonton?" She asked.

(OOC: No stealing Seethe's NPC, dammit. And welcome to the RP, Darkknight. Although I'm counting every "I" you didn't capitalize and kicking you in the shins once for each one during gym class on Tuesday.)

Seryntas rolled his eyes then, for two reasons. One, the bounty hunter couldn't believe the crap that had squeezed its way out of the sewers to take the job. A bookworm, a blue woman, and now a little midget girl who thinks she can fight. By the infernal wrath of Krad this had better not take long, or I'm going to kill somebody. The other reason, of course, is that LaVonton had tried the same ridiculous, time-wasting joke on Kilisha and it wasn't funny then, either. Seryntas hated bad jokes, and he especially hated when people repeated them. He was beginning to not like this Jeshua LaVonton.

"Yes, yes," said Jeshua, again sounding annoyed. "Now we really must get started."

With that, Jeshua started down the road towards Doma's gates. The rest of the group followed him. After passing through the gates, the party continued down the trail in an easterly direction for about thirty minutes. Then Jeshua stopped and remembered that he had meant to visit the marketplace before he left town, so he made the party turn around and walk all the way back. After resupplying to his satisfaction, he set off once again, making Kilisha carry his pack.

After about six hours, the sun was setting, so the archmage stopped again and made the mercenaries set up camp. When the fire was finally built, the sleeping bags were laid out, and Jeshua's tent was pitched, Lisha sat herself down to rest against the nearest tree she could find and greeted anyone who approached her with a feral growl.

It was a clear night with not a cloud in the sky and, if it were not for the small fire the group had built for their cooking the full moon above would provide enough light for even the humans to have seen by. Jessie sat at the far edge of the circle gazing out at the moon, reflecting and remembering.

The day had been nothing to complain about. Despite Jeshua's seeming incompetence at remebering the detail of needing supplies for the journey and the tension between himself and the overgrown mass of muscle there had yet to be so much as an argument between anyone. It was a good start at least but there was no order, teamwork or trust between them yet. They'd need all of these in abundance if they were going to survive any real threat that came their way.

Order was to be the first thing on Jessie's list, it was the cornerstone and lead into everything else. His moment over he broke the reverie and approached the rest of the group. "It occurs to me that we should probably set up some sort of watch rotation before we get to far into this journey. I'd like to take this opportunity to set that up now if no one has any objections."

(OOC: Okey dokey. Let's pretend that before they set out Seryntas went back to the Fireblades' for his sword, armor, and whatever provisions he would need. Plus he probably started the fire magically, being as he is a Burning Master of the Order of Fire.)

Seryntas looked up from his sword, which he had been polishing. "No objections here, I guess. I don't sleep well anyway, so I can take a pretty long watch if need be." He turned the sword over and examined the blade for imperfections. Finding none, he resheathed it and started on his helmet.

"As much as I appreciate the offer I think we should be splitting everything equally for now. Assuming a standard 12 and 12 day and noting the fact that there are four of us that leaves us with three hour shifts. As a matter of course the first and last wacthes will probably be the easiest ones as the rest of us will more than likely be awake for part of them. The only real question here is how we're going to split them. So then, anyone have a preferance as to which watch?"